Chapter 17
The next day was Friday, but there wasn't any school. Mrs. Stogbuchnerhad said that a lot of the roads were under water, just like the roadnear Baartock's home. But even though there wasn't any school, thenext morning Baartock was going to town.
Early in the morning, his father got him up, and they had something toeat. Baartock got the big lunch bag and his father picked up his bagof tools and they left and walked down to the 'old Howard house' andwaited. The sun wasn't up very high when Mrs. Jackson came driving upthe hill.
"Good morning," she called, as she stopped the car.
"Go bridge now," said his father.
Mrs. Jackson had decided that was just the way trolls were. Withbridges, they were all business.
"Good morning," said Baartock. He thought any morning he could go helpwork on a bridge was a good morning.
They got into the car. Baartock sat in the front and put on the seatbelt. His father stretched out along the back seat. He wasn'tsqueezed into the back, like he had been the day before. They stillhad to drive the long way around, but it wasn't too long before Mrs.Jackson was parking the car.
There wasn't a crowd at the bridge, it was too early in the morning.The man in uniform was there again. He didn't say anything toBaartock's father, but he did wave to Mrs. Jackson, and she waved back.
His father didn't want to waste any time getting started replacing theold bridge. As soon as they got there, he climbed out of the car andcarrying his bag of tools, went to the edge of the road. He jumpeddown into the water, and Baartock started handing him hammers andchisels, as he called for them. He would dry and put away the onesthat his father was finished with and threw back to him.
While they were working, people came to watch, but the man in uniformkept them back. Jason came down too, but the man wouldn't let him comeover.
At lunch time, his father climbed back up and dried himself off withthe blanket, and they sat under a tree to eat. Baartock was hungry,but his father ate four sandwiches to his one. Lunch was quickly over,and they were ready to go back to work.
This time, after his father jumped down, he told Baartock to hand himthe bag of tools. Then he walked carefully through the rushing stream,across the wrecked bridge to the other side and tossed the bag up onthe road. Then he came back and told Baartock to climb onto hisshoulders. He crossed the stream again, and Baartock scrambled up theother side. Then just as before, he handed down tools or put them away.
During the afternoon, a man came to talk to Baartock's father. He wason the other side, and Baartock couldn't hear what they were talkingabout. After a while, the man left and his father came back to work.
"Stone," his father said. That was enough. Baartock knew they had beentalking about how much stone would be needed to rebuild the bridge.His father was going to rebuild the bridge the right way, the trollway, with stone and not concrete.
It wasn't dark when Baartock was carried back across the stream. Theywere finished for the day.
The next day, Mrs. Jackson couldn't come to get them. When they gotdown to the house, Mr. Fennis was waiting for them. He didn't say aword, but he stared at Baartock's father. He looked as if his eyeswere going to pop out.
There were a few people already there, when they got to the bridge.And the man in uniform was there too.
The water had gone down a lot, and they worked on something new. Thistime, they didn't work where the supports had been, but spent the daybreaking up the old bridge. Some pieces his father piled up, to keepthe stream from washing away his new supports. The rest of the pieceshe tossed up to Baartock, who piled them beside the road. It was a longhard day, and Baartock fell asleep in the car on the way home.
The next day, both of Baartock's parents went off with Mrs. Jackson tolook at the stone they were going to build with. Baartock didn't goalong. He wanted to work on his bridge. Now that the stream had gonedown, he could fix it the way he wanted to. It was fun, but now thathe was working on a real bridge, his own seemed very small.
He went to school the next morning, but after school, instead of ridinghome on Mr. Barnes' bus, he went to help his parents work on the newbridge. He spent the rest of the afternoon helping pile up the brokenpieces of the old bridge.
For the rest of that week and for several weeks after, Baartock spenthis days in school and his afternoons and weekends working on thebridge. For a while, trucks came, bringing blocks of stone, and bigtimbers they would use for supports, building the bridge. They broughtenough stone to make a hill of stone, until his father said that wasenough.
In those weeks, the crowd that came to watch the bridge being builtgrew bigger, and there were more men in uniform to keep them back. Thepile of stone got smaller and the bridge got closer to being finished.Somehow, word had gotten out that trolls were building a bridge. A lotof people didn't believe it, and others didn't care. Other peopleheard that a man, a woman, and a boy were building a bridge bythemselves, and came to watch. A few people tried to push their waypast the men in uniform to talk to Baartock's parents while they wereworking.
Then one afternoon, right after lunch, Mrs. Jackson came to getBaartock from class. He was surprised when she said that they weregoing to the bridge. He usually didn't go until school was over. Asthey went out to the parking lot, they went past several school bussesparked in front of the school. He thought one of the busses was Mr.Barnes's, but they didn't go to it. They went to her car and drove tothe bridge.
When they got there, there was a big crowd just standing around one endof the bridge. Baartock's parents were standing in the middle of thebridge, but they weren't working. Baartock looked at the bridge. Itlooked finished, but as he walked over, he saw that there was one blockmissing from one side, and that block was lying on the sidewalk.
He walked over to his parents to find out why they hadn't finished thebridge. His mother just said, "wait," and kept watching Mrs. Jackson.Soon the school busses drove up and a lot of kids got out. There wasall of Mrs. Stogbuchner's class, and a lot of other kids besides. Theycame over to the bridge, but they didn't come across it, they juststood there with the rest of the crowd. They were all talking quietly,and watching Baartock and his parents. After a while a man got up on alittle wooden platform and started talking. He talked for a long time,but Baartock wasn't listening to him. He had gotten an idea. Awonderful idea.
Baartock's mother had been watching the man on the platform. When hefinished taking, she said, "Put stone in."
Baartock went over and picked up the last stone to put in the wall. Heslid it into place, and the crowd started to cheer. When he steppedback, he saw the writing on the block. It was his special mark, andthe letters 'BAARTOCK'S BRIDGE'.
The crowd kept on cheering, and Baartock felt embarrassed. Then helooked at his father. And his father looked at him. His father musthave had the same idea, for suddenly they both started yelling at thetop of their lungs, screaming, bellowing as loud as they could, as theyran at the crowd standing at the end of the bridge.
At the first sound, the crowd was frozen in place, and asBaartock and his father kept yelling and running at them, the crowdturned and ran away from the bridge as fast as they could. All thehumans kept on running until they were out of sight. Baartock and hisfather stopped at the end of the bridge and they turned and walkedback, laughing, to his mother in the middle of the bridge. She lookedat them.
"Good bridge," she said. "Good troll bridge."
Here is a short message from the author of Baartock:
This book is directed at children, up to about third grade, though itshould be read to them by an adult.
End of Baartock, by Lewis Roth (C)1989
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